Concepto vs realidad: la aparente inclusión de los pueblos originarios en las novelas históricas de Saer, Iparraguirre y Brizuela

Authors

  • Wojciech Tokarz St. Francis Xavier University

Keywords:

Argentina, Indigenous Poeple, Historical Novel, Democracy

Abstract

This article questions the so-called democratic aspect of the contemporary Latin American historical novel by analyzing three works published after the fall of the dictatorship in Argentina: El entenado (1983) by Juan José Saer, La tierra del fuego (1998) by Sylvia Iparraguirre, and El placer de la cautiva (2000) by Leopoldo Brizuela. Although all three novels examine and condemn exclusionary practices of history (and the national discourse), the democratic vision they project is nevertheless limited to those of European descent. The Amerindians in these novels, I argue, function merely as metaphors for ostracized sectors of society throughout the country’s history. Hence the authors fail to recognize the participation of Indigenous groups and their patrimony in the social fabric of contemporary Argentina. The democratic project extrapolated from these novels is limited, therefore, to a mere reorganization of traditional discourses that persistently exclude groups of non-European heritage from the national project.

Author Biography

Wojciech Tokarz, St. Francis Xavier University

Wojciech Tokarz recibió su maestría en literatura latinoamericana en el Instituto de Estudios Ibéricos de la Universidad de Varsovia, Polonia, para luego doctorarse en literatura comparada y estudios latinoamericanos en la University of Alberta en el Canadá. En 2012 publicó The Faces of Inclusion: Historical Fiction in Post-Dictatorship Argentina. Es becario de SSHRC IDG (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Insight Development Grant) que apoya su proyecto The Re-Invention of Argentina: the Incorporation of the Amerindian into the National Project in Post-Dictatorship Argentinean Literature. Es profesor auxiliar en la St. Francis Xavier University en Antigonish, Canadá, en el Departamento de Lenguas Modernas.

Published

2016-02-06

How to Cite

Tokarz, W. (2016). Concepto vs realidad: la aparente inclusión de los pueblos originarios en las novelas históricas de Saer, Iparraguirre y Brizuela. A Contracorriente: Una Revista De Estudios Latinoamericanos, 13(2), 70–85. Retrieved from https://acontracorriente.chass.ncsu.edu/index.php/acontracorriente/article/view/1391

Issue

Section

Articles / Artículos